cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10958052

Vanguard, the controversial anti-cheat software initially attached to Valorant, is now also coming to League of Legends.

Summary:

The article discusses Riot Games’ requirement for players to install their Vanguard anti-cheat software, which runs at the kernel level, in order to play their games such as League of Legends and Valorant. The software aims to combat cheating by scanning for known vulnerabilities and blocking them, as well as monitoring for suspicious activity while the game is being played. However, the use of kernel-level software raises concerns about privacy and security, as it grants the company complete access to users’ devices.

The article highlights that Riot Games is owned by Tencent, a Chinese tech giant that has been involved in censorship and surveillance activities in China. This raises concerns that Vanguard could potentially be used for similar purposes, such as monitoring players’ activity and restricting free speech in-game.

Ultimately, the decision to install Vanguard rests with players, but the article urges caution and encourages players to consider the potential risks and implications before doing so.

    • xep@kbin.social
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      10 months ago

      What makes an anticheat a rootkit? Rootkits are malicious and don’t generally come with EULAs and uninstallers.

      • enkers@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        What makes an anticheat a rootkit?

        A kernel-mode driver that runs at boot time. If your game doesn’t run in user space, I don’t want it on my system.

  • cm0002@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Fuck that, fuck kernel anti-cheats. Third party AVs have caused enough BSODs because of their kernel hooks and was finally able to free myself when MS defender actually got good.

  • corus_kt@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    What a massive freaking L for Riot, Vanguard was the reason why I didn’t play Valorant

  • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Haven’t played LOL in years but TFT is fun occasionally… guess it’s time to uninstall that launcher and completely cut off riot from my machine then

  • GustavoM@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I know that cheating ruins games and all, but straightaway opening a hole on my system because of such isn’t the right way to deal with it.